Chocolate sweet potato cheesecake truffles

For inexplicable reasons I attribute to breastfeeding, I have recently craved vegan cheese. This is inexplicable because cheese rates as one of my least favourite foods and has done since childhood (with odd pre-vegan exceptions, like soft cheeses with dried fruit in them). With these cravings I have bought Tesco soya cream cheese and the new Sainsbury's coconut-based cheddar cheese (or Gary as it's popularly known). I can say with some confidence that the Sainsbury's dairy free cheddar must be close to its dairy counterpart, because despite my craving I don't like it very much! I've had it on toast and on pizza and whilst it's tolerable in my current cheese-friendly state, it's not likely to feature in my kitchen regularly.

The soya cream cheese, on the other hand, was a nice discovery. I like it in sandwiches with spinach and jam (not together!) and it allowed me to make a vegan carrot cake with cream cheese icing. I don't know if my enjoyment of the product means it tastes different to dairy versions, as per my love of vegan cheesecakes but dislike of the traditional sort, or if my taste buds are acting out of the ordinary. Regardless, I'm enjoying the tub while I have it.

These chocolate sweet potato cheesecake truffles are a seasonally appropriate use of the soya cream cheese. Pumpkin could also be substituted if you are on the autumn pumpkin bandwagon. You probably know me well enough by now to realise that once I enjoy a flavour combination (like chocolate and sweet potato in my last post) I want it again - which is why I'm sharing sweet potato recipes in quick succession. Whether you use pumpkin or sweet potato, it's not a bad system to hide vegetables in cheesecake form.

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We Should Cocoa chocolate malt challenge: Vegan chocolate malt pie

This month, Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe is hosting the We Should Cocoa challenge. This is a long running link-up (70 months to date!) centrally organised by Choclette of Tin and Thyme. I haven't participated before but was drawn in by Johanna's theme: chocolate recipes that also feature malt. Reading the theme made me realise that I'd not had malty products since turning vegan - clearly something to be rectified.

After doing a bit of research, I was delighted to discover you can get vegan malt powder - and indeed, malt powder per se is vegan. It is the added milk powder that renders commercial malt drinks (like Horlicks and Milo) non-vegan. I was less delighted by the difficulties I had sourcing any malt powder, even in London with Whole Foods as an option. You can order it online but I opted to skip that and use malt syrup for my recipe instead. This was also fun to discover and reminds me a bit of molasses...but is maltier. It's quite readily available in health food stores in the UK.

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Three ingredient, no crust, chilled vanilla cheesecake {vegan + raw}

So...that cheesecake mentioned in my last post? It did work out. Rather well, in fact. I still find raw desserts amazing, and this one is a particularly good example because it uses just three simple ingredients.

As per the title of this post, I made the cheesecake without a crust. This contributes to the short ingredient list, but you could easily make a crusted version if you like. If doing so, I recommend the bases I have used with previous raw cheesecakes. With that said, I did like this crust-free version as it allowed the creamy vanilla flavour to shine through without distraction.

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Raw apple cheesecake puddings {London marathon fundraising}

Another Thursday and another fundraising recipe! This one is firmly in the dessert category, although I think these puddings could almost double up as breakfast. The ingredients are raw, vegan and entirely natural, even if the end result is rather decadent.

Raw apple cheesecake puddings

If you follow me on Facebook, you may have noticed that I've been rather obsessed with cashews. It's funny how tastes wax and wane over time. For the last two weeks, I have eaten more cashews than I would usually do in months. You see, I didn't use to like them much plain. With this turn around, there may be hope for me and avocados yet!

Given the cashew obsession, it isn't surprising that today's dessert is made with the nuts. However, don't worry if you aren't as fond of cashews as I currently am. They provide healthy creaminess but don't actually influence the pudding's flavour. That is firmly apple, with hints of maple syrup and vanilla. The final result is reminiscent of cheesecake without being exactly like it, which is why I have called these cheesecake puddings. They are a little softer than traditional cheesecake, and not as rich or as tart. They are, however, delicious.

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A final Christmas post - my main meal plans and a raw vegan mango cheesecake to say Happy Christmas

My Christmas food posts didn't stretch to main meal options this year. There is a reason for this, and it isn't just laziness (promise!): others have done a far better job on the topic than I could. Plus, many of the dishes I posted in round-up form last year, and the year before, still look appealing. I suspect you didn't want or need another round-up now.

This year, my own Christmas dishes will make use of Angela's brilliant Christmas-themed menu on Oh She Glows. I separately bookmarked her Best Shredded Kale Salad (with pecan parmesan and cranberries) and Lentil Mushroom Walnut Balls (with a cranberry-pear sauce) as Christmas ideas, and when she included them in her Christmas menu planning post, it was reinforcement that they were meant to be. After Johanna's post on her experience with the lentil balls, I will be following the recipes exactly - I have even tracked down  the required sherry vinegar!

These vegan dishes will be complementing a traditional roast turkey dinner with roasted vegetables (for my family), and an assortment of desserts. My dessert contributions will be a layered twist on the (vegan) Christmas ice cream I shared in 2011, and some homemade chocolates.

With Christmas menu planning done and dusted, my main focus for today is saying happy Christmas to you. Happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, winter solstice (yesterday!), summer solstice (also yesterday!), or just plain season.

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Vegan pumpkin cheesecake with optional raspberry topping

I'm glad that my last post conveyed my enthusiasm for the pumpkin cheesecake that, well, inspired this pumpkin cheesecake. It may be accurate to say that Candle Cafe provided me with the best dessert of my life. It is certainly accurate to say that it provided me with the best dessert of our recent trip.

When I set out to recreate this dish, I remembered Gabby's vegan pumpkin mousse cake posted this time last year on The Veggie Nook. I bookmarked it at the time, but it took the Candle Cafe prompt for me to pull it out again. I am glad I did, because not only did it result in a dessert to rival that of my New York experience, it was also unexpectedly easy. You need to allow some time to soak your nuts (there is no way to make that sound good), and to let the cake chill and set, but the active preparation time is well under an half an hour.

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Candle Cafe's vegan pumpkin cheesecake

Pale tangerine offset by ruby red

And studded with pepita jewels

Cleaved by fork; ethereal lightness
Beauty and perfection.

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Vegan gingernut cheesecake slice, plus Goodreads

I almost feel a little sheepish publishing this. Your well wishes have us halfway to Europe already, and this is not at all a European post! In truth, though, we don't leave until Saturday night and this week is providing a brief return to (sort of) normality. As normality for me includes posting recipes, a recipe is what we have.

This gingernut slice is not my usual style of recipe. Whilst vegan, the ingredients are processed and the slice is rich and sweet and creamy. The creaminess is offset, though, by ginger spices and subtle pineapple flavours. It reminds me of a dessert my Mum made when I was growing up, and I liked it very much.

I am amused, on reflection, to realise that I don't know how or why I decided to make the slice. I am not  sure why I bought the gingernut biscuits in the first place, and having bought them, I have no idea what prompted me to put them in a food processor instead of dunking them in my tea. The slice is like that really - it virtually makes itself. 

I haven't done this justice with the photos, which were all taken in evening / artificial light, but the slice is so simple and the result so tasty that I thought it worth sharing anyway. 

Vegan gingernut cheesecake slice

Extremely easy

Makes about 20 squares

Print recipe

Ingredients

150g (about 15) vegan gingernut biscuits (many gingernut brands are vegan without advertising it)

1 cup / 160g vegan cream cheese (I used tofutti)

1 cup / 200g canned pineapple pieces, drained

1 cup / 100g rolled oats

1 tsp vanilla, optional

Method

Process the gingernut biscuits in a food processor until mixed into crumbs (or crush manually). Add the remaining ingredients and process until smooth; don't over-process or the mix will be too thin.

Transfer to a square baking dish lined with baking paper and set in the freezer for several hours. Cut into squares, and allow to thaw at room temperature for a few minutes before serving.

Note. I found this kept best in the freezer, with just a few minutes of defrosting before eating. 

From gingernut flavours, we move to books, which in my mind makes for a perfect pairing. As some of you know, I log the books I read and these have been available to view via my Books page for some time. I settled on recording books in spreadsheet form because I found it easier than the online sites available. However, I have recently returned to Goodreads after Mr Bite discovered it and prompted me to re-activate my membership.

I am not sure if I have got more technologically advanced in the last 3 years or if Goodreads improved their site, but I now find it easy to add books (the barcode scanner app for smart phones helps too) and navigate my way around. As a result, I have added the Goodreads widget to my books page instead of my spreadsheet table. My Goodreads account is still a bit of a work in progress but you can also follow me through Goodreads itself if you have an account of your own.

Do you use Goodreads or any similar book logging sites?
How about gingernut cheesecake flavours - yes or no?

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Chilled vegan strawberry cheesecake slice

I have mentioned before that I rarely eat bananas plain. I like them frozen and whizzed into banana soft serve, or dried and turned into banana chips, or combined with peanut butter...but in their original form, I am not so keen.

(Except, of course, when they were only available at $14 / kg after Australia's banana plantations had been ruined by cyclones. Then I developed a sudden craving for them.)

With strawberries, it is the opposite. I love them plain and fresh,  but am not a big fan of strawberry flavoured products. Strawberry ice cream has always been my least favourite flavour. Strawberry jam seems boring. Strawberry yoghurt tends to taste artificial.

However.

Here we have a strawberry cheesecake slice and technically I don't like cheesecake either. Strawberry cheesecake should, by rights, have me running away at great speed.

But I'm not running. I loved this slice more than I can say. It has the flavours of fresh strawberries with the silky smoothness of a chilled cheesecake and a base that seems to pull it all together.

It is a million miles away from the strawberry cheesecake you might find in the frozen section of the supermarket. No artificial strawberry flavours here; indeed, no artificial flavours at all. The ingredients are predominantly raw and yet again (I may be getting obsessed...) there is that magical dessert ingredient - avocado.

For some added fun, this recipe was also largely born of imagination. I started off with a vague notion of making Gena's raw strawberry vanilla pudding from Choosing Raw, which was the first time I had seen avocado featured in a strawberry dessert. Between reading her post and making this slice, I started thinking about a strawberry version of Hannah's raw chocolate brownies from Wayfaring Chocolate. Then I thought back over my raw vegan cheesecake experimentation.

My mind whirred happily for a week or so, and this is what it gave me.

Chilled strawberry cheesecake slice

Inspired by Gena's raw strawberry vanilla pudding and Hannah's raw chocolate brownies

Vegan

Makes 16 small slices

Print recipe

Ingredients

For the base

1/2 cup raw cashews

1/3 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup desiccated coconut

1/8 cup agave (or maple syrup)

Up to 1 tbsp water, as needed (I used about 2/3 tbsp)

For the topping

2 small avocados (mine weighed 110g each with peel and stone)

12 medium strawberries, washed and de-stemmed

1/4 cup agave (or maple syrup)

1/8 cup desiccated coconut

1 tsp vanilla

Method

Line a loaf tin or square baking tin with baking paper (if you use a square baking tin you will probably only cover ~2/3 of the tin, but that doesn't matter).

To prepare the base, combine all of the base ingredients except the water in a food processor. Process until fine. Add up to 1 tbsp water, as needed, to form a slightly sticky mixture that is starting to clump together to form a ball.

Press the base mixture into your prepared tin, using a spatula or your fingers to spread it out evenly. Set aside while you make the topping.

To prepare the topping, combine all of the topping ingredients in a food processor. Process until smooth. Spread over the base.

Set in the freezer for at least 4 hours before slicing. Store in the freezer but bring slices to room temperature 5 - 10 minutes before serving.

*I had enough topping to cover the base and still have some spare (a small bowlful). I ate the spare topping plain but you could make a thicker topping on the slices if you preferred.

I was initially worried about the colour of these, as they were a bit murkier before being chilled. However, the time in the freezer turned them to the pink shown here (how? I don't know) and in the end there was no hint of avocado in colour or in taste.

With that said, these aren't as sweet or creamy (in a dairy sense) as regular cheesecake and I can imagine that they might not appeal to those who do like traditional, sweeter cheesecake products. Mr Bite was less enamored with them than I was, although this was partially due to the base. He doesn't like nuts, coconut or oats (I know...) so that dislike was not particularly surprising.

As for me? I am smitten.

What do you think of strawberry products and desserts? Yes or no?

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Raw vegan cheesecake, three ways

I'm quite excited about this post.

Part of this excitement is about sharing my experiments with raw vegan cheesecakes. It has been a lot of fun.

Part of it, too, is that today is the one year anniversary of Bite-Sized Thoughts starting.

A lot has happened in the year, and I have certainly learnt a huge amount. At the same time, it has gone quickly - I now can't imagine not blogging, but it doesn't feel as if I've been doing it for 12 months. I have truly come to love the blogging world and the process of organising my life and recipes (or some components thereof...) into blog form.

The three recipes I've chosen to post today capture so much of what I enjoy about cooking and food. They also capture a lot of what I enjoy about veganism. Of course, part of my enjoyment of vegan food stems from the are health and environmental benefits (as I see them anyway) and the ethical issues around animal produce. But it is also magical. That you can take natural, 100% plant-based foods and turn them into cheesecake - it is staggering. It captivates me and entertains me, and makes me very happy indeed.

I hope that these recipes might make you happy too.

All of them make 4 servings, so the quantities are small ones. I made mine in two individual, medium sized ramekins, and the pictures are of one of the resulting small cheesecakes. Doubling the ingredients would give a single larger cheesecake to serve 8 or so people.

All recipes can be found in streamlined version here.

For the non-streamlined version, let's start with chocolate.

Now the thing is, I don't actually like (regular) cheesecake. This is hardly surprising when you consider that I don't like creamy, cheesey, or milky dishes - cheesecake is like my horror dessert. The base I usually like; the filling is usually not my friend.

This does raise the question of why I have made three versions of vegan cheesecake.

Why? Well, I thought they might be different. Perhaps cheesecake without cream, without cheese and without milk would be cheesecake that I do like?

Despite this reasoning, it did seem safest to start with chocolate - that, I rarely dislike.

The inspiration for this first recipe, a chocolate raspberry cheesecake, came from various chocolate avocado desserts. I'm not sure what made me think I could convert 'dessert' into 'cheesecake', but this product did seem pretty cheesecakey to me (although, granted, I am a non-cheesecake eater...).

It was certainly creamy. Dense. Rich. Slightly but not very sweet. Most definitely chocolatey. In typically cheesecake form, the filling was also nearly too creamy and dense and rich. But - and here is the key! - it was nearly but not quite. Vegan won the day and small slices worked very well indeed, filling and all.

Chocolate berry cheesecake

Serves 4

Inspired by the chilled double chocolate torte on Oh She Glows; 
raw brownies with chocolate icing or pure amazingness on Wayfaring Chocolate; and 
raw carob cheesecake on Blissfully Vegan.

Print recipe

Ingredients

Base

1/2 cup raw almonds

1/4 cup dates, pitted and roughly chopped

Water as needed (I used about 1 tsp)

Filling

1 medium avocado (mine was ~120g flesh)

1/2 cup frozen raspberries

1 tbsp agave or maple syrup (use 1 1/2 tbsp if you want a sweeter taste; this version was just sweet)

2 1/2 tbsp good-quality cocoa

Topping

1/2 - 1 cup frozen raspberries, thawed

Method

Line two individual ramekins or a small pie dish with cling wrap.

Process the base ingredients until finely processed and starting to clump together. Add water if needed to get a thick and sticky consistency. Press the mixture into the bottom of your ramekins / pie dish.

Process or beat all filling ingredients until smooth and well combined. Divide between the two ramekins and cover with cling wrap. 

Set in the freezer for 2 hours and then serve with the extra thawed raspberries.

or

If making in advance, this will keep in the freezer for at least 3 days (longer if stored in an airtight container). Before serving, allow the cheesecake to thaw slightly at room temperature (15 - 30 minutes), and then top with the extra thawed raspberries. 

I don't think you can go wrong with chocolate and berries. This was certainly not wrong and I liked it very, very much indeed. I suspect it will be featuring again.

For my second cheesecake, I wanted to make a version of the lavender and lemon cheesecake featured on This Rawsome Vegan Life. Lavender as a baking ingredient has intrigued me for some time, and this seemed like as good a time as any to jump into trying it.

Except, I couldn't find any dried lavender. Frustratingly, I had seen it at a supermarket a few months back, but on re-visiting it they no longer stocked it. Neither did anywhere else I looked. In the end, I gave up.

I bought this instead, in an effort to console myself for the lavender-less trips:

Perhaps vanilla bean paste would be just the thing to make the perfect vegan cheesecake?

I changed my inspiration sources and settled on honey, vanilla and pistachio instead of lavender and lemon.

It seemed like a promising flavour combination, but the result wasn't quite as I had hoped...

'Honey', vanilla and pistachio cheesecake 
(use agave to make this vegan)

Serves 4

Inspired by this honey-pistachio cheesecake topping on Taste.com.au, and
the honey ingredient in the lavender lemon cheesecake on This Rawsome Vegan Life

Print recipe

Ingredients

Base
1/4 cup pistachios

1/4 cup almonds

1/3 cup sesame seeds

1/4 cup dates

Filling

1 cup cashews, soaked in water for at least 4 hours

1/3 cup raw honey or agave (I used half of each, for no real reason other than wanting to conserve the more expensive agave but not wanting to finish off our honey) - I would use less than this in future

1 tsp coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

2 tsp lemon juice

Topping

Extra pistachios, optional

Method

Line two individual ramekins or a small pie dish with cling wrap.

Process the base ingredients until finely processed and starting to clump together. Press the mixture into the bottom of your ramekins / pie dish.

Process or beat all filling ingredients until smooth and well combined. Divide between the two ramekins and cover with cling wrap. 

Set in the fridge or freezer for 2 - 4 hours and then serve with the extra pistachios

or

If making in advance, this will keep in the fridge or freezer for at least 3 days (longer if stored in an airtight container).

As alluded to above, I didn't like this at all. Perhaps it was my persisting fixation with lavender or perhaps it was that this was too close to a typical cheesecake - when it was set in the fridge, I didn't like the texture of the filling at all, being creamy and squishy and just not to my tastes.

Setting this in the freezer improved the consistency, and I found that it didn't turn solid even when frozen overnight. I still didn't enjoy the flavour though. It was too sweet, for a start - I would use much less honey / agave in future - and it was also vaguely nutty. I like nuts, but I didn't like the cashew undertones here.

Definitely a failure, at least for m7 tastes.

It did, though, provide the motivation for moving on to version three...

I still really wanted lavender and in the end I picked some from a neighbour's garden (!). I'm sure this isn't the approach one should take, but the lavender was already semi-dried by the summer sun; some time in a sunny spot in the kitchen dried it out further.

For this cheesecake, my challenge was in deciding what 'cream' base to use. Cashews seem to be a standard approach, but I was no longer keen on those after my negative experience with the version above. I had liked the result with avocado in the chocolate raspberry cheesecake, but I didn't really want a green lavender and lemon cheesecake.

In the end, though, that's exactly what I went for.

I could have made this lavender and lime, which would have made the colour appropriate, but I was keen on  lemon. I decided that retaining pistachios in the ingredient list would be my nod towards making the colour semi-appropriate, and so ended up with lavender, lemon and pistachio.

Lavender, lemon, and pistachio cheesecake

Serves 4
Adapted from lavender lemon cheesecake on This Rawsome Vegan Life

Print recipe

Ingredients

Base
1/4 cup pistachios

1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup dates

Filling
1 small - medium avocado (mine was ~100g flesh)

1 tsp chia seeds

1/8 cup lemon juice

2 tbsp agave

1 tsp vanilla extract

Petals of 1 dried lavender stalk (~1 tsp), crushed

2 tsp dessicated coconut

Pinch salt

Topping
Extra pistachios, optional

Method

Line two individual ramekins or a small pie dish with cling wrap.

Process the base ingredients until finely processed and starting to clump together. Press the mixture into the bottom of your ramekins / pie dish.

Process or beat all filling ingredients until smooth and well combined. Divide between the two ramekins and cover with cling wrap. 

Set in the freezer for 2 hours and then serve with the extra pistachios

or

If making in advance, this will keep in the freezer for at least 3 days (longer if stored in an airtight container). Before serving, allow the cheesecake to thaw slightly at room temperature (15 - 30 minutes).

I loved this.

Really, truly loved it.

It was definitely magical. The green colour almost made it more so. It looked like an pea-inspired dessert, or something equally odd, but tasted like a dream.

With flavours of lemon and just slight lavender, this had just the right sweetness and creaminess.

I made Mr Bite try this one. He was very perplexed by the colour and ate his trial mouthful with his eyes closed. However, even he gave it positive feedback - and green, raw, vegan cheesecake with lavender in it is certainly not something I would expect him to review positively!

He thought it tasted like lemon cheesecake, and that the texture was cheesecake-like - somewhat of a relief given that he does enjoy normal cheesecake and is a better judge of 'cheesecake-ness' than I am.

Interestingly, he couldn't detect the lavender flavour but stated he didn't like 'the aftertaste'. I found the lavender to hit after the initial lemon notes, so suspect this aftertaste was the lavender. If you're not sure about lavender, perhaps half a stalk would be a good starting amount...for myself, I really enjoyed the subtle flavour hit and will be experimenting with this again.

This is a very long post, and if you are still reading - thank you, and I hope some of the above was entertaining to you as well as to me. I had great fun with these creations and I hope to have many more experimenting sessions as this blog goes into year two...

What do you find magical in the kitchen? Have there been dishes you've really enjoyed playing with?

I am linking the chocolate raspberry cheesecake into Ricki's 2013 Valentine's Day Wellness Weekend (14th-18th February 2013)...because really, what more could you want on Valentine's Day?

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